Sega became another victim of a network breach during this week, with the Japanese company having sent information to users of their 'Sega Pass' service, to inform them that "unauthorized entry was gained" to the Sega Pass database, though the company is currently attempting to investigate the incident. As CNET points out, the information following was posted on PlayStation Lifestyle, as information apparently sent out to Sega Pass users. It reads:

"We have identified that a subset of Sega Pass members' e-mails addresses, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords were obtained. To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text. Please note that no personal payment information was stored by Sega, as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion."

The incident is just one of many that has happened during the past week and months due to different organized groups, who have been responsible for attacks on groups such as Sony, Lockheed Martin, the FBI, the United States Senate, and The Escapist, as well as others. The information does not identify the party, or parties, responsible for the strike against the company, but it does caution users of the Sega Pass with the following points:

If you use the same login information for other websites and / or services as you do for Sega Pass, you should change that information immediately.

We have also reset your password, and all access to Sega Pass has been temporarily suspended.

Additionally we recommend you please take extra caution if you should receive suspicious emails that ask for personal or sensitive information.

Currently, the Sega Pass website is offline, and this message is presented to anyone who attempts to reach it:

"Hi

SEGA Pass is going through some improvements so is currently unavailable for new members to join or existing members to modify their details including resetting passwords.

We hope to be back up and running very soon.

Thank you for your paitence"

The hacking group LulzSec, responsible for attacks against different sites on the internet and other incidents, publicly tweeted to Sega. Their tweet offered assistance to the company, and read as follows:

"@Sega - contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down.

LulzSec then tweeted the same numbers they had used earlier in the week, in order to 'request a hack'. When the number is dialled, callers will hear two 'characters' with exaggerated French accents, running from a soundboard. The usage of these numbers serves only to highlight the chaos currently happening among a select number of different websites, most of which are related to videogames. The group has quickly become notorious on the internet for their actions against different companies, and their willingness to hack targets that have been requested by callers. The group claims to be doing what they are doing "for the lulz".